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The Tennessean

Department of Children’s Services chief Kate O’Day said Thursday she would review how reports of severe child abuse are being categorized in response to allegations from law enforcement and child advocates that her agency isn’t properly intervening in cases of severe abuse.

DCS also will work with a statewide network of Child Advocacy Centers to create a way for child welfare officials, district attorneys and others to alert the agency if severely abused children are being overlooked by the department, she said.

“It will give us more data to see if we have systemic issues or data issues or other issues,” O’Day said. She said the review of procedures at the agency’s central intake call center would conclude by year-end. DCS’ 24-hour central intake call center takes reports of abuse from the public and from DCS caseworkers.

“I think there’s strong agreement that we all want Tennessee’s children to be safer,” she said.

Child welfare advocates had presented to the department a half-dozen cases in which they allege children were severely abused, but the cases had not been flagged as such by the DCS.

They included a 4-year-old with a blood alcohol level equal to that of an intoxicated adult and a child sex abuse victim, according to Sen. Jim Summerville, who organized the meeting.

Bonnie Beneke, executive director of the Tennessee Children’s Advocacy Centers, a statewide network of agencies that assist abused children, said the meeting was just the first step and she was satisfied to get the conversation going.

“Certainly, the department was more willing and more prone to hear some of these issues,” she said. “I think it’s a good start to think about the way these cases are classified on the front end” — such as the central intake unit that O’Day promised to review. “I think we got a commitment from the department, and that’s the first step.”

But of the six cases that Beneke’s group presented to DCS as examples of severe child abuse wrongly categorized by DCS workers, only one case raised concerns, O’Day said.

“We mostly found we are following procedures,” she said. “There was just one situation that raised a question in the way it was classified.”

O’Day did not share those findings in the afternoon meeting, however.

Child welfare officials, who left immediately after the meeting and before O’Day’s remarks to a reporter, could not be reached to comment on O’Day’s conclusions.

“We did not hear about all six cases,” Beneke said, adding that DCS staff discussed only one case. “We did not receive a copy of their report.”

'Work together'

Sheriff Jeff Bledsoe, his chief investigator, a detective and District Attorney Dan Alsobrooks made the trip from Dickson County.

“I have a sworn duty to enforce” the laws, Bledsoe said. “We need to work together to ensure the safety of the children in our state.”

State law defines “severe child abuse” in part as “likely to cause serious bodily injury or death and the knowing use of force on a child that is likely to cause serious bodily injury or death.”

Bledsoe’s letter said he had been “advised of documented cases, in which reported cases meeting the definition of ‘severe child abuse’ are not being classified as such in accordance with the statute.”

“This is very concerning to me, as there may be only one opportunity to intervene and protect or save a child’s life,” he said.

The Dickson group was accompanied by Cumberland County Sheriff Butch Burgess, who made the 120-mile trip from Crossville to meet with O’Day. It was not the first time the sheriff has met with DCS to discuss his unique approach to handling child abuse in his county. Beneke said the sheriff has suggested his approach is a model for other counties in the state.

Bypassing traditional turf lines, Burgess has made room in his sheriff’s office for the DCS staff person who takes abuse calls. “If DCS screens the call out (as not a severe abuse case), his guys go out anyway,” Beneke said.

Summerville said he expects to hold another meeting as early as next week.